Anna Akhmatova.
North Star
Biography
Text: Vitaly Vulf. Recording: Serafima Chebotar.
L'Officiel magazine. Russian edition. No. 44 February 2003.
She was called the "Northern Star", although she was born on the Black Sea. She lived a long and very eventful life, in which there were wars, revolutions, losses and very little simple happiness. All of Russia knew her, but there were times when even her name was forbidden to be mentioned. A great poet with a Russian soul and a Tatar surname - Anna Akhmatova.
She, whom all of Russia would later recognize as Anna Akhmatova, was born on June 11 (24), 1889 in the suburbs of Odessa, Bolshoy Fontan. Her father, Andrei Antonovich Gorenko, was a marine engineer, her mother, Inna Erasmovna, devoted herself to the children, of whom there were six in the family: Andrei, Inna, Anna, Iya, Irina (Rika) and Victor. Rika died of tuberculosis when Anya was five years old. Rika lived with her aunt, and her death was kept secret from the other children. Nevertheless, Anya felt what had happened - and as she later said, this death cast a shadow throughout her entire childhood.
When Anya was eleven months old, the family moved north: first to Pavlovsk, then to Tsarskoye Selo. But every summer they invariably spent on the shores of the Black Sea. Anya swam beautifully - according to her brother, she swam like a bird.
Anya grew up in an atmosphere quite unusual for a future poet: there were almost no books in the house, except for the thick volume of Nekrasov, which Anya was allowed to read during the holidays. The mother had a taste for poetry: she read the poems of Nekrasov and Derzhavin to the children by heart, she knew a lot of them. But for some reason everyone was sure that Anya would become a poetess - even before she wrote the first line of poetry.
Anya started speaking French quite early - she learned it by watching her older children's classes. At the age of ten she entered the gymnasium in Tsarskoe Selo. A few months later, Anya became seriously ill: she lay unconscious for a week; They thought she wouldn't survive. When she came to, she remained deaf for some time. Later, one of the doctors suggested that it was smallpox - which, however, left no visible traces. The mark remained in my soul: it was from then on that Anya began writing poetry.
Anya’s closest friend in Tsarskoe Selo was Valeria Tyulpanova (married Sreznevskaya), whose family lived in the same house as Gorenko. On Christmas Eve 1903, Anya and Valya met Sergei's acquaintances, Valya's brother - Mitya and Kolya Gumilyov, who shared a music teacher with Sergei. The Gumilyovs escorted the girls home, and if this meeting did not make any impression on Valya and Anya, then for Nikolai Gumilyov on that day his very first - and most passionate, deep and long-lasting feeling began. He fell in love with Anya at first sight.
She struck him not only with her extraordinary appearance - and Anya was beautiful with a very unusual, mysterious, bewitching beauty that immediately attracted attention: tall, slender, with long thick black hair, beautiful white hands, with radiant gray eyes on an almost white face, her profile resembled antique cameos. Anya stunned him and was completely different from everything that surrounded them in Tsarskoye Selo. For ten whole years she occupied the main place both in Gumilyov’s life and in his work.
Kolya Gumilev
, only three years older than Anya, even then recognized himself as a poet and was an ardent admirer of the French symbolists. He hid his self-doubt behind arrogance, tried to compensate for external ugliness with mystery, and did not like to concede to anyone in anything. Gumilyov asserted himself, consciously building his life according to a certain model, and fatal, unrequited love for an extraordinary, unapproachable beauty was one of the necessary attributes of his chosen life scenario.
He bombarded Anya with poems, tried to capture her imagination with various spectacular madness - for example, on her birthday he brought her a bouquet of flowers picked under the windows of the imperial palace. On Easter 1905, he tried to commit suicide - and Anya was so shocked and frightened by this that she stopped seeing him.
That same year, Anya’s parents separated. The father, having retired, settled in St. Petersburg, and the mother and children went to Evpatoria. Anya had to urgently prepare to enter the last grade of the gymnasium - due to moving, she fell far behind. The classes were brightened up by the fact that a romance broke out between her and the tutor - the first in her life, passionate, tragic - as soon as everything became known, the teachers immediately calculated - and far from the last.
In the spring of 1906, Anya entered the Kyiv gymnasium. For the summer she returned to Yevpatoria, where Gumilyov stopped by to see her on his way to Paris. They reconciled and corresponded all winter while Anya was studying in Kyiv.
In Paris, Gumilyov took part in the publication of a small literary almanac "Sirius", where he published one poem by Ani. Her father, having learned about his daughter’s poetic experiments, asked not to disgrace his name. “I don’t need your name,” she replied and took the surname of her great-grandmother, Praskovya Fedoseevna, whose family went back to Tatar Khan Akhmat. This is how the name of Anna Akhmatova appeared in Russian literature.
Anya herself took her first publication completely lightly, believing that Gumilyov had “been hit by an eclipse.” Gumilyov also did not take his beloved’s poetry seriously - he appreciated her poems only a few years later. When he first heard her poems, Gumilyov said: “Or maybe you’d rather dance? You’re flexible...”
Gumilyov constantly came from Paris to visit her, and in the summer, when Anya and her mother lived in Sevastopol, he settled in a neighboring house to be closer to them.
Returning to Paris, Gumilyov first went to Normandy - he was even arrested for vagrancy, and in December he again tried to commit suicide. A day later he was found unconscious in the Bois de Boulogne...
In the fall of 1907, Anna entered the law faculty of the Higher Women's Courses in Kyiv - she was attracted by legal history and Latin. In April of the following year, Gumilyov, stopping in Kyiv on the way from Paris, again unsuccessfully proposed to her. The next meeting was in the summer of 1908, when Anya arrived in Tsarskoe Selo, and then when Gumilev, on the way to Egypt, stopped in Kyiv. In Cairo, in the Ezbekiye garden, he made another, final attempt at suicide. After this incident, the thought of suicide became hateful to him.
In May 1909, Gumilyov came to see Anya in Lustdorf, where she was then living, caring for her sick mother, and was again refused. But in November she suddenly - unexpectedly - gave in to his persuasion. They met in Kyiv at the artistic evening “Island of Arts”. Until the end of the evening, Gumilev did not leave Anya one step - and she finally agreed to become his wife.
Nevertheless, as Valeria Sreznevskaya notes in her memoirs, at that time Gumilyov was not the first role in Akhmatova’s heart. Anya was still in love with that same tutor, St. Petersburg student Vladimir Golenishchev-Kutuzov - although he had not made himself known for a long time. But agreeing to marry Gumilyov, she accepted him not as love - but as her Fate.
They got married on April 25, 1910 in Nikolskaya Slobodka near Kiev. Akhmatova's relatives considered the marriage obviously doomed to failure - and none of them came to the wedding, which deeply offended her.
After the wedding, the Gumilevs left for Paris. Here she meets Amedeo Modigliani
- then no one famous artist, who takes many of her portraits. Only one of them survived - the rest died during the siege. Something similar to a romance even begins between them - but as Akhmatova herself recalls, they had too little time for anything serious to happen.
At the end of June 1910, the Gumilevs returned to Russia and settled in Tsarskoye Selo. Gumilyov introduced Anna to his poet friends. As one of them recalls, when it became known about Gumilyov’s marriage, no one at first knew who the bride was. Then they found out: an ordinary woman... That is, not a black woman, not an Arab, not even a Frenchwoman, as one might expect, knowing Gumilyov’s exotic preferences. Having met Anna, we realized that she was extraordinary...
No matter how strong the feelings were, no matter how persistent the courtship was, soon after the wedding Gumilyov began to be burdened by family ties. On September 25, he again leaves for Abyssinia. Akhmatova, left to her own devices, plunged headlong into poetry. When Gumilev returned to Russia at the end of March 1911, he asked his wife, who met him at the station: “Did you write?” she nodded. "Then read it!" - and Anya showed him what she had written. He said, "Okay." And from that time on I began to treat her work with great respect.
In the spring of 1911, the Gumilyovs again went to Paris, then spent the summer on the estate of Gumilyov’s mother Slepnevo, near Bezhetsk in the Tver province.
In the fall, when the couple returned to Tsarskoe Selo, Gumilyov and his comrades decided to organize an association of young poets, calling it the “Workshop of Poets.” Soon, on the basis of the Workshop, Gumilyov founded the movement of Acmeism, opposed to symbolism. There were six followers of Acmeism: Gumilev, Osip Mandelstam, Sergei Gorodetsky, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zenkevich and Vladimir Narbut.
The term "acmeism" comes from the Greek "acme" - peak, highest degree perfection. But many noted the consonance of the name of the new movement with the name of Akhmatova.
In the spring of 1912, Akhmatova’s first collection “Evening” was published, with a circulation of only 300 copies. Criticism greeted him very favorably. Many of the poems in this collection were written during Gumilyov's travels across Africa. The young poetess became very famous. Fame literally fell on her. They tried to imitate her - many poetesses appeared, writing poems “like Akhmatova” - they began to be called “podakhmatovkas”. In a short time, Akhmatova, from a simple, eccentric, funny girl, became that majestic, proud, regal Akhmatova, who was remembered by everyone who knew her. And after her portraits began to be published in magazines - and many, many people painted her - they began to imitate her appearance: the famous bangs and the “false-classical” shawl appeared on every second one.
In the spring of 1912, when the Gumilevs went on a trip to Italy and Switzerland, Anna was already pregnant. She spends the summer with her mother, and Gumilyov spends the summer in Slepnev.
The son of Akhmatova and Gumilyov, Lev, was born on October 1, 1912. Almost immediately, Nikolai’s mother, Anna Ivanovna, took him in - and Anya did not resist too much. As a result, Leva lived with his grandmother for almost sixteen years, seeing his parents only occasionally...
Just a few months after the birth of his son, in the early spring of 1913, Gumilyov went to his last trip in Africa - as the head of an expedition organized by the Academy of Sciences.
In his absence, Anna is active social life. A recognized beauty, an adored poet, she is literally basking in fame. Artists paint her, her fellow poets dedicate poems to her, and she is overwhelmed by fans...
At the beginning of 1914, Akhmatova’s second collection “The Rosary” was published. Although the critics received it somewhat coolly - Akhmatova was accused of repeating herself - the collection was a resounding success. Even despite the wartime, it was reprinted four times.
Akhmatova is universally recognized as one of greatest poets of that time. She was constantly surrounded by crowds of admirers. Gumilev even told her: “Anya, more than five is indecent!” She was worshiped for her talent, and for her intelligence, and for her beauty. She was friends with Blok, an affair with whom they persistently attributed to her (the basis for this was the exchange of poems that were published), with Mandelstam (who was not only one of her closest friends, but in those years tried to court her - however, unsuccessfully) , Pasternak (according to her, Pasternak proposed to her seven times, although he was not truly in love). One of the people closest to her at that time was Nikolai Nedobrovo, who wrote an article about her work in 1915, which Akhmatova herself considered the best of what had been written about her in her entire life. Nedobrovo was desperately in love with Akhmatova.
In 1914, Nedobrovo introduced Akhmatova to his best friend, poet and artist Boris Anrep. Anrep, who lived and studied in Europe, returned to his homeland to participate in the war. It started between them whirlwind romance, and soon Boris ousted Nedobrovo both from her heart and from her poems. Nedobrovo took this very hard and parted ways with Anrep forever. Although Anna and Boris managed to meet infrequently, this love was one of the strongest in Akhmatova’s life. Before the final departure to the front, Boris gave her a throne cross, which he found in a destroyed church in Galicia.
Gumilyov also went to the front. In the spring of 1915, he was wounded, and Akhmatova constantly visited him in the hospital. She spent the summer, as usual, in Slepnev - there she wrote most of the poems for the next collection. Her father died in August. By this time she herself was already seriously ill - tuberculosis. Doctors advised her to immediately leave for the south. She lives in Sevastopol for some time, visits Nedobrovo in Bakhchisarai - as it turned out, this was their last meeting; in 1919 he died. In December, doctors allowed Akhmatova to return to St. Petersburg, where she again continues to meet with Anrep. Meetings were rare, but Anna in love looked forward to them all the more.
In 1916, Boris left for England - he planned to stay for a month and a half, but stayed for a year and a half. Before leaving, he visited Nedobrovo and his wife, who then had Akhmatova. They said goodbye and he left. They exchanged rings goodbye. He returned the day before February Revolution. A month later, Boris, at the risk of his life, under bullets, crossed the ice of the Neva - to tell Anna that he was leaving for England forever.
Over the following years, she received only a few letters from him. In England, Anrep became known as a mosaic artist. In one of his mosaics he depicted Anna - he chose her as a model for a figure of compassion. The next time - and the last - they saw each other only in 1965, in Paris.
Most of the poems from the collection "The White Flock", published in 1917, are dedicated to Boris Anrep.
Meanwhile, Gumilev, although active at the front - he was awarded the St. George Cross for valor - leads an active literary life. He publishes a lot and constantly speaks critical articles. In the summer of 17th he ended up in London and then in Paris. Gumilyov returned to Russia in April 1918.
The next day, Akhmatova asked him for a divorce, saying that she was marrying Vladimir Shileiko.
Vladimir Kazimirovich Shileiko
was a famous Assyrian scholar and also a poet. The fact that Akhmatova would marry this ugly, completely unadapted to life, insanely jealous man came as a complete surprise to everyone who knew her. As she later said, she was attracted by the opportunity to be useful to a great man, and also by the fact that with Shileiko there would not be the same rivalry that she had with Gumilyov. Akhmatova, having moved to his Fountain House, completely subordinated herself to his will: she spent hours writing his translations of Assyrian texts under his dictation, cooking for him, chopping wood, making translations for him. He literally kept her under lock and key, not allowing her to go anywhere, forced her to burn all the letters she received unopened, and did not allow her to write poetry.
Her friend, a composer, helped her Arthur Lurie, with whom she became friends back in 1914. Under his leadership, Shileiko was taken to the hospital, as if for treatment of sciatica, where she was kept for a month. During this time, Akhmatova entered the service of the library of the Agronomic Institute - they provided firewood and a government apartment. When Shileiko was released from the hospital, Akhmatova invited him to move in with her. There Akhmatova herself was the hostess, and Shileiko calmed down. They finally separated in the summer of 1921.
Then one funny circumstance was discovered: when Akhmatova moved in with him, Shileiko promised to formalize their marriage himself - fortunately, then it was only necessary to make an entry in the house register. And when they were getting divorced, Lurie, at Akhmatova’s request, went to the house committee to cancel the entry - and it turned out that it never existed.
Many years later, she, laughing, explained the reasons for this absurd union: “It’s all Gumilyov and Lozinsky, they repeated with one voice - an Assyrian, an Egyptian! Well, I agreed.”
From Shileiko Akhmatova moved to her longtime friend, dancer Olga Glebova-Sudeikina - ex-wife artist Sergei Sudeikin, one of the founders of the famous "Stray Dog", whose star was the beautiful Olga. Lurie, whom Akhmatova dismissed for frivolity, became friends with Olga, and soon they left for Paris.
In August 1921, Alexander Blok died. At his funeral, Akhmatova learned the terrible news - Gumilev was arrested in the so-called Tagantsev case. Two weeks later he was shot. His only fault was that he knew about the impending conspiracy, but did not report it.
In the same August, Anna’s brother Andrei Gorenko committed suicide in Greece.
Akhmatova’s impressions of these deaths resulted in a collection of poems, “The Plantain,” which was then expanded and became known as “Anno Domini MCMXXI.”
After this collection, Akhmatova did not publish collections for many years, only individual poems. The new regime did not favor her work - for its intimacy, apoliticality and “noble roots”. Even the opinion of Alexandra Kollontai - in one of her articles she said that Akhmatova’s poetry is attractive to young working women because it truthfully depicts how poorly a man treats a woman - did not save Akhmatova from critical persecution. A series of articles branded Akhmatova’s poetry as harmful, since she writes nothing about work, the team and the struggle for a bright future.
At this time, she was left practically alone - all her friends either died or emigrated. Akhmatova herself considered emigration completely unacceptable for herself.
It became more and more difficult to print. In 1925, an unofficial ban was placed on her name. It hasn't been published for 15 years.
In the early spring of 1925, Akhmatova again experienced an exacerbation of tuberculosis. When she was lying in a sanatorium in Tsarskoe Selo - together with Mandelstam's wife Nadezhda Yakovlevna - she was constantly visited by Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin
, historian and art critic. About a year later, Akhmatova agreed to move to his Fountain House.
Punin was very handsome - everyone said that he looked like the young Tyutchev. He worked at the Hermitage, doing modern graphics. He loved Akhmatova very much - although in his own way.
Officially, Punin remained married. He lived in the same apartment with his ex-wife Anna Arens and their daughter Irina. Although Punin and Akhmatova had a separate room, they all dined together, and when Arens went to work, Akhmatova looked after Irina. The situation was extremely tense.
Unable to publish poetry, Akhmatova delved into scientific work. She began researching Pushkin and became interested in the architecture and history of St. Petersburg. She helped Punin a lot in his research, translating French, English and Italian for him scientific works. In the summer of 1928, her son Leva, who by that time was already 16 years old, moved in with Akhmatova. The circumstances of his father's death prevented him from continuing his studies. It was with difficulty that he was placed in a school where Nikolai Punin’s brother Alexander was the director. Then Lev entered the history department of Leningrad University.
In 1930, Akhmatova tried to leave Punin, but he managed to convince her to stay by threatening suicide. Akhmatova remained to live in the Fountain House, leaving it only for a short time.
By this time, the extreme poverty of Akhmatova’s life and clothing was already so obvious that it could not go unnoticed. Many found Akhmatova’s special elegance in this. In any weather, she wore an old felt hat and a light coat. Only when one of her old friends died did Akhmatova put on the old fur coat bequeathed to her by the deceased and did not take it off until the war. Very thin, still with the same famous bangs, she knew how to make an impression, no matter how poor her clothes were, and walked around the house in bright red pajamas at a time when they were not yet accustomed to seeing a woman in trousers.
Everyone who knew her noted her unsuitability for everyday life. She didn't know how to cook and never cleaned up after herself. Money, things, even gifts from friends never lingered with her - almost immediately she distributed everything to those who, in her opinion, needed them more. For many years she herself made do with the bare minimum - but even in poverty she remained a queen.
In 1934, Osip Mandelstam was arrested - Akhmatova was visiting him at that moment. A year later, after the murder of Kirov, Lev Gumilyov and Nikolai Punin were arrested. Akhmatova rushed to Moscow to work, she managed to deliver a letter to the Kremlin. They were soon released, but this was only the beginning.
Punin became clearly burdened by his marriage to Akhmatova, which now, as it turned out, was also dangerous for him. He demonstrated his infidelity to her in every possible way, said that he was bored with her - and yet he did not let her leave. Besides, there was nowhere to go - Akhmatova did not have her own home...
In March 1938, Lev Gumilev was arrested again, and this time he spent seventeen months under investigation and was sentenced to death. But at this time his judges themselves were repressed, and his sentence was replaced by exile.
In November of the same year, Akhmatova finally managed to break with Punin - but Akhmatova only moved to another room in the same apartment. She lived in extreme poverty, often getting by with only tea and black bread. Every day I stood in endless lines to give my son a parcel. It was then, in line, that she began writing the Requiem cycle. The poems of the cycle were not written down for a very long time - they were kept in the memory of Akhmatova herself and several of her closest friends.
Quite unexpectedly, in 1940, Akhmatova was allowed to publish. At first, several individual poems were published, then he allowed the release of an entire collection, “From Six Books,” which, however, mainly included selected poems from previous collections. Nevertheless, the book caused a stir: it was taken off the shelves for several hours, and people fought for the right to read it.
However, after a few months, the publication of the book was considered a mistake, and it began to be withdrawn from libraries.
When the war began, Akhmatova felt a new surge of strength. In September, during the heaviest bombings, she spoke on the radio with an appeal to the women of Leningrad. Together with everyone else, she is on duty on the roofs, digging trenches around the city. At the end of September, by decision of the city party committee, she was evacuated from Leningrad by plane - ironically, she was now recognized as an important enough person to be saved... Through Moscow, Kazan and Chistopol, Akhmatova ended up in Tashkent.
She settled in Tashkent with Nadezhda Mandelstam, constantly communicated with Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, and became friends with Faina Ranevskaya, who lived nearby - they carried this friendship throughout their lives. Almost all Tashkent poems were about Leningrad - Akhmatova was very worried about her city, about everyone who remained there. It was especially difficult for her without her friend, Vladimir Georgievich Garshin
. After breaking up with Punin, he began to play a big role in Akhmatova’s life. A pathologist by profession, Garshin was very concerned about her health, which Akhmatova, according to him, criminally neglected. Garshin was also married; his wife, a seriously ill woman, required his constant attention. But he was a very intelligent, educated, interesting conversationalist, and Akhmatova became very attached to him. In Tashkent, she received a letter from Garshin about the death of his wife. In another letter, Garshin asked her to marry him, and she accepted his proposal. She even agreed to take his last name.
In April 1942, Punin and his family were evacuated through Tashkent to Samarkand. And although the relationship between Punin and Akhmatova after the breakup was very bad, Akhmatova came to see him. From Samarkand, Punin wrote to her that she was the main thing in his life. Akhmatova kept this letter like a shrine.
At the beginning of 1944, Akhmatova left Tashkent. First, she came to Moscow, where she performed at an evening held in the hall of the Polytechnic Museum. The reception was so stormy that she even got scared. When she appeared, the audience stood up. They say that when Stalin found out about this, he asked: “Who organized the rise?”
She told everyone she knew that she was going to Leningrad to see her husband, dreamed of how she would live with him... And the more terrible was the blow that awaited her there.
Garshin, who met her on the platform, asked: “And where should we take you?” Akhmatova was speechless. As it turned out, without saying a word to anyone, he married a nurse. Garshin destroyed all her hopes of finding a home that she had not had for a long time. She never forgave him for this.
Subsequently, Akhmatova said that, apparently, Garshin had gone crazy from hunger and the horrors of the blockade.
Garshin died in 1956. On the day of his death, the brooch that he once gave to Akhmatova split in half...
This was Akhmatova’s tragedy: next to her, strong woman, there were almost always weak men who tried to shift their problems onto her, and there was never a person who could help her cope with her own troubles...
After returning from Tashkent, her demeanor changed - it became simpler, calmer, and at the same time more distant. Akhmatova abandoned her famous bangs; after suffering typhus in Tashkent, she began to gain weight. It seemed that Akhmatova had been reborn from the ashes for a new life. In addition, she was again recognized by the authorities. For her patriotic poems she was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". Her research on Pushkin was being prepared for publication, large selection poems. In 1945, Lev Gumilev returned to Akhmatova’s great joy. From exile, which he served since 1939, he managed to get to the front. Mother and son lived together. It seemed that life was getting better.
In the fall of 1945, Akhmatova was introduced to the literary critic Isaiah Berlin
, then an employee of the British Embassy. During their conversation, Berlin was horrified to hear someone in the yard calling his name. As it turned out, it was Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, a journalist. The moment was terrible for both Berlin and Akhmatova. Contacts with foreigners - especially embassy employees - were, to put it mildly, not welcome at that time. A personal meeting might still not be seen - but when the prime minister's son is yelling in the yard, it is unlikely to go unnoticed.
Nevertheless, Berlin visited Akhmatova several more times.
Berlin was the last of those who left a mark on Akhmatova’s heart. When Berlin himself was asked whether he had something with Akhmatova, he said: “I can’t decide how best to answer...”
On August 14, 1946, a decree of the CPSU Central Committee “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” was issued. The magazines were branded for providing their pages to two ideologically harmful writers - Zoshchenko and Akhmatova. Less than a month later, Akhmatova was expelled from the Writers' Union, deprived of food cards, and her book, which was in print, was destroyed.
According to Akhmatova, many writers who wanted to return to Russia after the war changed their minds after the decree. Thus, she considered this resolution to be the beginning of the Cold War. She was as absolutely convinced of this as she was that the Cold War itself was caused by her meeting with Isaiah Berlin, which she found fatal and of cosmic significance. She was firmly convinced that all further troubles were caused by her.
In 1956, when he was again in Russia, she refused to meet with him - she did not want to incur the wrath of the authorities again...
After the ruling, she found herself in complete isolation - she herself tried not to meet with those who did not turn away from her, so as not to cause harm. Nevertheless, people continued to come to her, bring food, and she was constantly sent food cards by mail. Criticism turned against her - but for her it was much less scary than complete oblivion. She called any event only a new fact in her biography, and she was not going to give up her biography. At this time she is working hard on her central work, "A poem without a hero."
In 1949, Nikolai Punin was arrested again, and then Lev Gumilev. Lev, whose only crime was that he was the son of his parents, was to spend seven years in the camp, and Punin was destined to die there.
In 1950, Akhmatova, breaking herself, in the name of saving her son, wrote a cycle of poems, “Glory to the World,” glorifying Stalin. However, Lev returned only in 1956 - and even then, it took a long time to get his release... He left the camp with the conviction that his mother did nothing to alleviate his fate - after all, she, so famous, could not be refused! While they lived together, their relationship was very strained, then, when Leo began to live separately, it almost completely ceased.
He became a famous orientalist. He became interested in the history of the East while in exile in those parts. His works are still considered one of the most important in historical science. Akhmatova was very proud of her son.
Since 1949, Akhmatova began to engage in translations - Korean poets, Victor Hugo, Rabindranath Tagore, letters from Rubens... Previously, she refused to engage in translations, believing that they took time away from her own poems. Now I had to - it provided both income and relatively official status.
In 1954, Akhmatova quite by accident earned herself forgiveness. The delegation that arrived from Oxford wished to meet with the disgraced Zoshchenko and Akhmatova. She was asked what she thought about the resolution - and she, sincerely believing that it was not the place of foreigners who do not understand the true state of affairs to ask such questions, simply answered that she agreed with the resolution. They didn't ask her any more questions. Zoshchenko began to explain something at length - and this damaged himself even more.
The ban on Akhmatova’s name was again lifted. She was even allocated from the Writers' Union - although Akhmatova was expelled from it, as a translator she could be considered a "writer" - a dacha in the writers' village of Komarovo near Leningrad; She called this house Booth. And in 1956, largely thanks to the efforts of Alexander Fadeev, Lev Gumilyov was released.
The last ten years of Akhmatova’s life were completely different from the previous years. Her son was free, she finally had the opportunity to publish. She continued to write - and wrote a lot, as if in a hurry to express everything that she was not allowed to say before. Now the only obstacles were illnesses: she had serious heart problems, and her obesity made it difficult for her to walk. Until her last years, Akhmatova was regal and stately, wrote love poems and warned young people who came to her: “Just don’t fall in love with me! I don’t need this anymore.” She was surrounded by young people - the children of her old friends, fans of her poetry, students. She especially became friends with young Leningrad poets: Evgeny Rein, Anatoly Naiman, Dmitry Bobyshev, Gleb Gorbovsky and Joseph Brodsky.
Akhmatova received the opportunity to travel abroad. In 1964 she was awarded the international poetry prize "Etna-Taormina" in Italy, and in 1965 for her scientific works in the field of Pushkin studies, Oxford University awarded her an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. In London and Paris, where she stopped on the way back, she was able to meet again with the friends of her youth - Salome Halpern, Yuri Annenkov, who once painted her, Isaiah Berlin, Boris Anrep... She said goodbye to her youth, to her life.
Akhmatova died on March 5, 1966 - ironically, on the anniversary of Stalin's death, which she loved to celebrate. Before being sent to Leningrad, her body lay in the Moscow morgue at the hospital, located in the building of the old Sheremetev Palace, which, like the Fountain House, depicted a coat of arms with the motto heard in the “Poem without a Hero”: “Deus conservat omnia” - “ God preserves everything."
After the funeral service in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Leningrad, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova was buried in Komarovo - not far from her only real home for many years. Crowds of people accompanied her to last path- the path to Eternity...
(1889 - 1966)
A short biography of Anna Akhmatova is characterized by a wide poetic range. During the war years, patriotic poems and lyrical cycles, distinguished by motifs of blood unity, stand out.
In general, Akhmatova’s poetry is characterized by classic style characterized by clarity and simplicity. Anna Akhmatova's lyrics are real life, from which the poetess drew the motives of true earthly love. Her poetry is distinguished by contrast, which manifests itself in the alternation of melancholic, tragic and light notes.
Akhmatova’s original surname was Gorenko; the poetess was born in 1989 near Odessa in the family of a marine mechanic. Anna spent her entire youth in Tsarskoe Selo.
Anna's parents divorced when the girl was sixteen years old, so her mother was forced to leave with the children to Kyiv. There the girl continued her studies at the gymnasium.
The poetic biography of Anna Akhmatova begins at the age of eleven, when the young lady wrote her first work.
In 1907, Akhmatova entered the Faculty of Law in Kyiv, where she studied Latin and legal history.
She publishes her first poem under the pseudonym of Anna Akhmatova, since real name her father forbade her to use it. Thus, the readers are presented with the name of her great-grandmother, who was a Tatar princess.
Significant event in the life of Anna Akhmatova takes place in 1910, when the young poetess marries the young acmeist poet Gumilyov. Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev get married in St. Nicholas Church, and the young people spend their honeymoon in Paris.
Later, upon returning to St. Petersburg, Anna writes many poems, which became part of her first book, “Evening.” She performed poetry readings in front of her husband's friends. Akhmatova supports her husband in his literary views, and therefore becomes a supporter of Acmeism.
The biography of Anna Akhmatova is a lot of travels that influenced not only her life, but also left an imprint on her work. In 1911, she spent the spring in Paris, and already in 1912 Anna went on a trip to Northern Italy.
Almost every summer, Akhmatova visited the Tver province, and it was the poems written in this place that were included in the book “The Rosary,” which was published in 1914.
The third collection of poetry, “The White Flock,” published in 1917, brought great fame to the work of the great poetess.
After the revolution, Akhmatova got a job in a library, where she studied Pushkin’s works.
A short biography of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova is a life in verse that retained aristocratic restraint and simplicity of form. This is where the magical power of her creations manifested itself.
Love passions in the life of Anna Akhmatova.
Anna did not have reciprocal feelings for her future husband Nikolai Gumilyov, but the young man was then sure that the young girl would forever become his muse, for whom he would write poetry.
Disappointed with unrequited love, Gumilyov leaves for Paris, but then Anya realizes that she is madly in love with Nikolai. The girl sends a letter, after which Gumilev returns on the wings of love and proposes marriage. But Akhmatova gives consent only after much persuasion and Gumilyov’s stories about his suicide attempts.
The groom's relatives did not come to the wedding ceremony of Akhmatova and Gumilyov, as they considered this marriage a passing hobby.
Soon after the wedding, Gumilyov starts a love affair on the side. Akhmatova was very worried about this, so she decided to save the situation by having a child. But this did not prevent him from having affairs on the side.
However, Akhmatova’s own behavior was also not impeccable, since after her husband’s departure she began an affair with the poet Anrep. But their relationship came to an end after Anrep emigrated to England.
After Gumilyov’s return, Anna informs him of their divorce and explains this by the fact that she fell in love with someone else.
But, despite all these facts, the great poetess remained devoted to Gumilyov. After his execution, she kept all the poems, took care of their publication and dedicated her new works to him.
It is difficult to imagine the period of the Silver Age in Russian poetry without such a big name as Anna Akhmatova. The biography of this outstanding man is not at all easy. Akhmatova's personality is shrouded in an aura of mystery. In her personal life there was glory, love, but also great sorrow. This will be discussed in the article.
Biography of Akhmatova: complete
Anna Akhmatova (Gorenko) was born on June 23, new style, 1889 into a noble family. Her biography began in Odessa. Her father worked as a mechanical engineer, her mother belonged to the creative intelligentsia.
A year later, the Gorenko family moved to St. Petersburg, where his father received a higher position. All Anna's childhood memories were connected with this wonderful city on the Neva. The girl's upbringing and education was, of course, at the highest level. She and her nanny often walked in Tsarskoye Selo Park and enjoyed the beautiful creations of talented sculpture masters.
They started teaching her lessons early social etiquette. In addition to Anya, the family had five more children. She listened to the governess teach French older children, and independently learned this language in this way. The girl also learned to read and write on her own by reading Leo Tolstoy’s books.
When Anna was ten years old, she was sent to the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium. She studied reluctantly. But I loved summer holidays which the family spent near Sevastopol. There, according to her own recollections, the girl shocked the local young ladies by walking without a hat, barefoot, sunbathing to such an extent that her skin began to peel off. From that time on, Anna fell in love with the sea, once and for all.
Perhaps this love for the beauty of nature gave rise to poetic inspiration in her. Anna wrote her first poem at the age of eleven. The poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov, Derzhavin, Nekrasov served as role models for her.
After Anna's parents divorced, she moved with her mother and other children to Evpatoria, and then to Kyiv. I had to finish my last year at the gymnasium there. Then she entered the Higher Women's Courses at the Faculty of Law. But, as it turned out, jurisprudence is not her calling. Therefore, Anna chose Women's literary and historical courses in St. Petersburg.
The beginning of a creative journey
No one in the Gorenko family ever wrote poetry. The father forbade the young poetess to sign the name Gorenko, so as not to disgrace their family. He considered her passion for poetry to be something unacceptable and frivolous. Anna had to come up with a pseudonym.
It turned out that in their family there was once upon a time the Horde Khan Akhmat. The aspiring poetess began to be called after him.
When Anna was still studying at the gymnasium, a young man named Nikolai Gumilyov met her. He also wrote poetry, even published his own magazine, Sirius. The young people began to meet, and after Anna moved they corresponded. Nikolai highly appreciated the girl’s poetic talent. He was the first to publish her poems in his magazine under the signature of Anna G. This was in 1907.
In 1910-1912, Anna Akhmatova traveled through European countries. She was in Paris, Italy. There there was a meeting with the Italian impressionist artist Amadeo Modigliani. This acquaintance, which turned into a whirlwind romance, left a noticeable mark on her creative biography.
But, unfortunately, the lovers could not be together. They separated in 1911 and never met again. Soon the young artist died of tuberculosis. Love for him and worry about his untimely death were reflected in the work of the young poetess.
Akhmatova's first poems are lyrical. They reflect the poetess’s personal life, her love, and experiences. They are passionate and tender, full of feelings, a little naive, as if written in an album. The poetess herself called the poems of that time “the poor poems of an empty girl.” They look a little like early work another outstanding poetess of that time - Marina Tsvetaeva.
In 1911, Anna Akhmatova for the first time in her life creative biography decides to independently send his poems to the judgment of professionals in the then popular Moscow monthly magazine “Russian Thought”.
She asked if she should have continued writing poetry. The answer was positive. Her poems were published.
Then the poetess was published in other famous magazines: Apollo, General Journal and others.
Popular recognition of the poetess' talent
Soon Akhmatova becomes famous in literary circles. Many famous writers and poets of that time noticed and appreciated her talent. Everyone is also amazed by the extraordinary beauty of the poetess. Her oriental nose with a pronounced hump, half-closed eyes with large clouds, which sometimes had the ability to change color. Some said her eyes gray, others claimed that they were green, and still others remembered that they were sky blue.
Also, her sedateness and royal bearing spoke for themselves. Despite the fact that Anna was quite tall, she never hunched over and always stood very straight. Her manners were refined. Mystery and uniqueness reigned throughout the appearance.
They say that in her youth Anna was very flexible. Even ballerinas were jealous of her extraordinary plasticity. Her thin hands, aquiline nose, and misty, cloudy eyes were sung by many poets, including, of course, Nikolai Gumilyov.
In 1912, Anna Akhmatova’s first book, entitled “Evening,” was published. These poems were exclusively lyrical, touching and melodious. The collection immediately found its admirers. It was a burst of fame in the life of the young poetess. She is invited to perform her poems, many artists paint her portraits, poets dedicate poems to her, composers write musical works to her.
In bohemian circles, Anna met the poet Alexander Blok. He was delighted with her talent and beauty. And of course, he dedicated his poems to her. Many have already talked about the secret romance of these outstanding people. But whether this was true, no one knows anymore. She was also friends with the composer Lurie and the critic N. Nedobrovo. She also had affairs with them, according to rumors at the time.
Two years later, the poetess’s second book, called “The Rosary,” was published. This was already poetry of the highest professional level, compared to her first book. The established “Akhmatovian” style can already be felt here.
In the same year, Anna Akhmatova wrote her first poem, “Near the Sea.” In it, the poetess reflected her impressions of her youth, memories of the sea, and love for it.
At the beginning of World War I, Akhmatova curtailed her public appearances. Then she fell ill with a terrible disease - tuberculosis.
But there was no break in her personal poetic life. She continued to write her poetry. But then the poetess was more fascinated by her love of reading classics. And this affected her work of that period.
Came out in '17 new book poetess "White Flock". The book was published in a huge circulation - 2 thousand copies. Her name became louder than the name of Nikolai Gumilyov. By that time, Akhmatova’s own style was clearly visible in her poems, free, individual, integral. Another famous poet Mayakovsky called it “a monolith that cannot be broken by any blows.” And this was the true truth.
More and more philosophy appears in her poems, less and less naive youthful expressions. Before us is the wise one, adult woman. Her life experience, deep intelligence and at the same time simplicity are clearly visible in the lines. The theme of faith in God and Orthodoxy is also an integral part of her work. The words “prayer”, “God”, “faith” can often be found in her poems. The poetess is not shy about her faith, but speaks openly about it.
Terrible years
After the October revolution in the country, terrible times began not only for Russia, but also for Akhmatova herself. She did not even imagine what torment and suffering she would have to endure. Although in his youth, during a visit to the elder’s cell, he predicted a martyr’s crown for her and called her “Christ’s Bride,” promising a Heavenly crown for her patience with suffering. Akhmatova wrote about this visit in her poem.
Of course, the new government could not like Akhmatova’s poems, which were immediately called “anti-proletarian”, “bourgeois”, etc. In the 20s, the poetess was under constant supervision of the NKVD. She writes her poems “on the table” and is forced to give up public speaking.
In 1921, Nikolai Gumilyov was arrested for “anti-Soviet propaganda” and sentenced to death. Akhmatova is having a hard time with his death.
Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilyov
In 1921, Alexander Blok died. She is divorcing her second husband. This whole series of tragic events did not break this woman, strong in spirit. She resumes work in literary societies, publishes again and speaks to the public. A new book of her poems, “Plantain,” is being published.
Then, six months later, Akhmatova’s fifth book, AnnoDomini MCMXXI, was published. This name is translated from Latin - in the summer of the Lord 1921. After that, it was not published for several years. Many of her poems from that time were lost during travel.
At the height of the repressions in 1935, two people close to her were arrested: her husband (Nikolai Punin) and son. She wrote to the government about their release. A week later they were released.
But the troubles didn't end there. Three years later, Lev Gumilyov's son was arrested again and sentenced to five years of hard labor at hard labor. The unfortunate mother often visited her son in prison and gave him parcels. All these events and bitter experiences were reflected in her poem “Requiem”.
In 1939, Akhmatova was admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers. In 1940, “Requiem” was written. Then the collection “From Six Books” was published.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Akhmatova lived in Leningrad. Her health condition deteriorated sharply. On the advice of doctors, she left for Tashkent. A new collection of her poems was published there. In 1944, the poetess decided to return to Leningrad.
After the war in 1946, her work was heavily criticized along with the work of M. Zoshchenko in the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”. They were expelled in disgrace from the Writers' Union.
In 1949, Akhmatova’s son was arrested again. She asked for her son, wrote to the government, but she was refused. Then the poetess decides to desperate step. She wrote an ode to Stalin. The cycle of poems was called “Glory to the World!”
In 1951, Fadeev proposed to reinstate the poetess in the Writers' Union, which was carried out. In 1954, she took part in the second congress of the Writers' Union.
In 1956, her son was released. He was angry with his mother because, as it seemed to him, she did not seek his release.
In 1958, her new collection of poems was published. In 1964 she received the Italian Etna-Taormina Prize. The following year, in England, the poetess was awarded a doctorate from Oxford University. In 1966, the last collection of her poems was published. On March 5 of the same year, while in a sanatorium, she died.
On March 10, Akhmatova’s funeral service was held in an Orthodox church in Leningrad. She was buried in a cemetery in Komarovo, Leningrad region.
Personal life of Akhmatova
The personal life of Anna Akhmatova interests many. She was officially married twice.
The first husband was Nikolai Gumilyov. They met and corresponded for a long time. Nikolai had been in love with Anna for a long time, and proposed marriage to her many times. But she refused. Then Anya was in love with her classmate. But he didn't pay any attention to her. Anna, in despair, tried to commit suicide.
Anna's mother, seeing Gumilyov's persistent courtship and endless marriage proposals, called him a saint. Finally, Anna broke down. She agreed to the marriage. The young people got married in 1910. They went on their honeymoon to Paris.
But, since Anna could not reciprocate her husband in any way and agreed to the marriage solely out of pity, very soon the young artist Amadeo Modigliani took a place in her heart. She met the ardent Italian in Paris. Then Anna came to him again.
He painted her portraits, she wrote poems for him. Stormy, beautiful novel was forced to break off in the midst of it, since it would not have led to anything good.
Soon Anna and Gumilev broke up. Anna Akhmatova's personal life changed in 1818: she married the scientist Vladimir Shileiko for the second time. But she divorced him three years later.
Changes in Anna Akhmatova’s personal life occurred in ’22. She became the common-law wife of N. Punin. I broke up with him in 1938. Then she had an intimate relationship with Garshin.
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (Gorenko) is a talented and world-recognized poetess, whose biography tells about tragic fate generation of the last representatives of the nobility Russian Empire, complemented by the drama characteristic of the lives of many creative personalities.
Years of life: 1889 - 1966.
Being persecuted most of its time literary life Having repeatedly experienced repressions against loved ones, Anna Akhmatova did not stop writing even in the most difficult moments.
The imprint of tragedy left on the poetess’s work gave it special spiritual strength and anguish.
The best poems of Anna Akhmatova
Many of the poet’s works have earned worldwide recognition.
Each was born for a special occasion, becoming a logical continuation of the events of her life:
- The poetess's first collection of poems was published in 1912 under the title "Evening", shortly before the birth of her son. It already contained many poems that made Akhmatova’s name immortal: “Muse”, “Garden”, “Grey-Eyed King”, “Love”.
- The second collection was published already in 1414, before the start of World War I, under the title “Rosary Beads”. It was published in a much larger circulation, but would have been republished several times. Reviews from critics noted a noticeable creative growth poetesses. They emphasized persuasiveness poetic language, many successful literary devices, rhythm and rare style of the poetess (“Alexander Blok”, “In the evening”, “I learned to live simply, wisely”).
- Three years later, a month before the terrible revolutionary events of 1917, the collection “The White Flock” was published. In his lines, written during the years of Russia’s participation in World War I, the shades of the intimate experiences of the lyrical heroine, which abounded in the poems of previous collections, are already faintly heard. Akhmatova becomes stricter, more patriotic, more tragic, the appeal to the Divine is noticeably manifested (“In Memory of July 19, 1914”, “Your spirit is darkened by arrogance”). The poetic style is noticeably improving. It was the best time of her life, giving complete freedom for creativity.
- The collection “Plantain” was released in one of the most hard years for the poetess - in 1921, when she learns about her brother’s suicide, about the execution ex-husband and the father of his child Nikolai Gumilyov, about the death of his friend A. Blok. It includes poems written mainly in the 17-20s. The poetess put into the title the idea that the revolution, having destroyed the cultural heritage of the country and made it impossible for the growth of “ cultivated plants”, doomed its future to desolation - to “weeds”. The theme of a blooming garden, the warm lyrics of previous collections are almost never found, the mood is minor and thoughtful (“And now I was the only one left”, “Immediately it became quiet in the house”). Pain and condemnation can be heard in the verses from the fact that the flower of the nation is leaving the country in a wide emigration stream (“You are an apostate: for the green island”).
- There are very few joyful lines in the collection “Anno Domini MCMXXI”. He was born after the shocks Anna experienced, so he leads the reader along the path of sadness and hopelessness (“Slander”, “Prediction”), which the poetess herself walked.
- And the apotheosis of the tragic pages of Akhmatova’s work is the poem “Requiem”, dedicated to the repressions of the 30s. The suffering of a mother whose son is suffering in prison is just an episode in the global grief of an entire people, whose sons and daughters are being crushed by a soulless state machine.
Brief biography of Anna Akhmatova
The future poetess was born in 1889 in the Russian Empire, in Odessa. Of the 6 children of the Gorenko family of hereditary nobles, no one wrote poetry except Anna.
After moving to St. Petersburg, Anna at the age of 10 entered the Tsarskoye Selo Mariinsky Gymnasium, at the age of 17 - the Fundukleevskaya Gymnasium in Kyiv, and 1908-10. – graduated from the Higher Women's Historical and Literary Courses.
Early years
Already in early childhood She studied French, and at the age of 11 she composed her first poem.
In the summer months, the Gorenko family took children suffering from tuberculosis to the sea - they had a house in Crimea.
Anna on sea coast She was known as a “wild young lady” because she did not feel burdened with secular demands - she swam, sunbathed, and ran barefoot, just like ordinary children of “ignoble blood.”
Subsequently, she will remember her free childhood in the poem “By the Sea” and will return to this topic later.
Personal life
An unhappy female fate haunted her all her life, despite the abundance of male attention. The first union was without love, with a difficult and troubled family life, a short second and painful third marriages that ended in divorce.
At the same time, the poetess’s charm, intelligence and talent not only earned her literary fame, but also provided her with many fans. Famous sculptor and the artist Amadeo Modigliani was captivated by the young poetess even on her first trip to Europe with Gumilyov.
At the same time, the first, most famous, portrait of Akhmatova appeared - a sketch of several strokes, which she valued more than all the others.
She kept the fiery letters addressed to Anna Modigliani, and one day she allowed Gumilyov to discover them - as revenge for his betrayal. This helped her speed up the divorce.
Another admirer is the artist and writer Boris Anrep, whom she especially singled out from the crowd of others. The poetess dedicated several dozen poems to him.
Composer and music critic Arthur Lurie, philosopher and diplomat Isaiah Berlin also left their mark on the life of the Russian poetess, adding to the list of her fans. Berlin even contributed to Akhmatova receiving a doctorate from Oxford University, many years later - already at the end of her life.
Akhmatova's husbands
Anna married Nikolai Gumilyov, her first husband, while in love with another. She resigned herself to fate, yielding to the long courtship of an exalted admirer, who made several suicide attempts due to unrequited love. The groom's relatives disapproved of this marriage so much that they did not even appear at the wedding ceremony.
Gumilyov, being a talented poet, researcher and extraordinary personality, was not ready for family life. Despite his passionate love for young Anna before the wedding, he did not try to make his wife happy. Creative jealousy, betrayal on both sides, and lack of spiritual intimacy did not contribute to the preservation of the family. Only Gumilyov’s long absences made it possible to delay the divorce for as much as 8 years.
They broke up because of his next hobby, but continued to maintain friendly communication. The marriage produced Anna’s only son, Lev Gumilyov. Three years after the divorce, N. Gumilyov was shot by the Soviet authorities as a convinced monarchist, for failure to report an alleged counter-revolutionary conspiracy.
The second husband, with whom Anna married immediately after her divorce from Gumilyov, Vladimir Shileiko, was a talented scientist and poet. But, being very jealous of his wife, he limited her freedom, burned her correspondence, and did not allow her to write poetry. In the tragic year for Anna, 1921, they separated.
Akhmatova lived in a civil marriage with her third husband for 15 years, since 1922. Nikolai Punin was also not “a native of the people” - he was a major scientist, art historian, critic, and held significant positions in government structures.
But, like her two previous husbands, he was also jealous of Anna’s creativity and tried in every possible way to belittle her poetic talent. Akhmatova had to live with her son at Punin’s house, where his first wife and daughter also lived. The children were not in equal conditions; preference was always given to Nikolai’s daughter, which greatly offended Anna.
When Punin was arrested for the first time, Akhmatova managed to secure his release. After some time, he broke up with Anna, starting a family with another woman. After living in a new marriage for several years, he was arrested again and never returned from prison.
Akhmatova's creativity
The Silver Age of Russian poetry was rich in talents and literary movements. Akhmatova’s work is a vivid example of such an original movement in literature as Acmeism, the founder and main authority of which was N. Gumilyov.
It is interesting that the public, while not particularly fond of Gumilyov’s own poems, was enthusiastic about the new representative of the movement, who quickly became a full-fledged participant in the “Workshop of Poets.”
The world of early Akhmatova’s poems consists of clear forms, bright emotions, achieved by imagery and rhythm of language, without leading into symbolism, blurriness and incomprehensibility of mystical images.
Clear narrative phrases made the lines written by her close and understandable to the reader, without forcing them to guess hidden meanings and subtexts.
The creative path of the poetess is divided into two periods. The first is built around the image of a lyrical heroine, loving, sensitive and suffering.
In the second period, the heroine undergoes metamorphosis, and life trials are to blame for this. Now she is a grieving mother, a woman, a patriot, acutely feeling the pain of the suffering of her people. Sometimes the line in her work is drawn according to the Great Patriotic War, but this is not entirely correct.
There is no clear division between these periods - with each collection, starting with "Plantain", the heroine becomes more and more clearly a citizen of her fatherland, and the patriotic intensity in the poems grows stronger. Indeed, it reaches its apogee in the early 40s (“Oath”, “Courage”), the impetus for its emergence is October Revolution, and is consolidated by the tragic year 1921 (“Anno Domini MCMXXI”).
After 1924, her poems stopped being published, and the Russian reader saw the official publication of the famous “Requiem” only towards the end of the 80s, just a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After evacuation from besieged Leningrad to Tashkent, she writes many poems that do not reach the public. She is surrounded on all sides by censorship and prohibitions, and lives only by earning money from literary translations.
Last years of life and death
Only towards the end of her life, from 1962, the ice around the poetess begins to gradually melt. A new generation of readers has emerged. Disgrace with Akhmatova is a thing of the past - she speaks at author's evenings, her poems are quoted in literary circles.
A year before her death, the poetess was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The poetess’s son did not communicate with her for the last 10 years before his mother’s death. As a result, Akhmatova, being famous and beloved by the literary public, died alone, undergoing sanatorium treatment, at the venerable age of 76 years. The reason is another heart attack.
The poetess was buried near St. Petersburg, at the Komarovskoye cemetery. She bequeathed a wooden cross to be placed on her grave.
Lev Nikolayevich arranged the place of her burial himself, with the help of students, by building a fragment of a camp wall with a prison window from cobblestones. Anna came to such a wall for 1.5 years to deliver parcels to her son.
Interesting facts from the biography of Anna Akhmatova
Having listed the most important things, let’s add a few more interesting facts from the life and work of the poetess:
- The father of the future poetess, Andrei Antonovich, a naval officer and nobleman, did not approve of her poetic experiments, demanding not to disgrace his name with her poems. Anna Andreevna was offended, so from the age of 17 she began to sign as Akhmatova, taking the surname of her maternal great-grandmother, the successor of the old family of the Chagadayev princes and the Tatar branch of the Akhmatovs. Subsequently, after the first divorce, the poetess will take her pseudonym as her surname, officially. When asked about nationality, she always answered that she came from Tatar family, originating from Khan Akhmat.
- In 1965, the Nobel Prize Committee, considering two candidates from Russia - Akhmatova and Sholokhov, was inclined to divide the amount equally between the nominees. But in the end, preference was given to Sholokhov.
- After the death of A. Modigliani, several previously unknown sketches were found. The image of the model is very reminiscent of the image of young Anna, which can be judged from her photo.
- The son of the poetess did not forgive his mother for not freeing him, accusing her of narcissism and lack of mother's love. Anna herself always admitted that she was a bad mother. An incredibly gifted, charismatic and enthusiastic person scientific activity, Lev Nikolaevich experienced the full power of the repressive state machine, which deprived him of his health and almost completely broke him. He was sure that his mother could, but was not particularly eager to help him with his release from prison. He especially hated the poem "Requiem", believing that a requiem is not dedicated to those who are still alive, and his mother was too hasty in burying him.
- Akhmatova died on the day of Stalin’s death - March 5.
About the details of this life unique woman we learn from her diary, which she never parted with throughout her adult life. The works written by Akhmatova also help to reconstruct the events of those years related to the life not only of her own, but also of her contemporaries - people who were close to her to varying degrees.
The history of the 20th century, grinding the fates of many talented people, caused indelible damage to the Russian culture of the Silver Age. Based on Akhmatova’s play “Prologue, or a Dream within a Dream,” the series “The Moon at its Zenith” was even filmed, where the most important narrative line is the biographical memoirs of the poetess.
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova is a famous poetess, translator and literary critic. The brightest representative of the Silver Age of Russian poetry. Twice Anna Andreevna was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature: in 1965 and 1966.
The future poetess was born on June 23, 1889 in the village of Bolshoy Fontan near Odessa. She was the third child of six children in the family of nobleman Andrei Antonovich Gorenko and Inna Erazmovna Stogova. In 1990, A.A. Gorenko was appointed to serve as a collegiate assessor, and the family moved to Tsarskoe Selo. Anna Gorenko studied at the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium. At the age of 16, Anna moved with her mother to Evpatoria, and then to Kyiv, where she entered the gymnasium and attended the law department of the Higher Women's Courses.
The girl wrote her first poem at the age of 11, and even then it became clear to her that this was a life-long love. The father considered his daughter’s passion for writing to be a disgrace to the family name, so by the age of 17, Anna chose a different surname - Akhmatova, which belonged to her great-grandmother.
The poem “There are many shiny rings on his hand...” was published in 1907 by Nikolai Gumilyov in the weekly Sirius in Paris, where he worked at that time. Their acquaintance began in Tsarskoe Selo and was maintained by correspondence. In 1910, in the village of Nikolaevskaya Slobodka near Kiev, the couple got married. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Akhmatova plunged into the life of the creative bohemia of that time. In the first periods of its creative activity she was a supporter of Acmeism. The creators of the movement were Nikolai Gumilyov and Sergei Gorodetsky. Acmeists advocated for a departure from symbolism in literature, and to turn to the objectivity and materiality of images, the accuracy of words and the specifics of topics. The first collection of Akhmatova’s works, “Evening,” published in 1912, became the foundation for building the principles of Acmeism. In 1914, a collection of poems, “Rosary Beads,” was published, which was reprinted several times until 1923.
On October 1, 1912, Anna Akhmatova’s only child, Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev, was born. He lived almost all of his childhood with his grandmother A.I. Gumileva. His relationship with his mother was difficult for various reasons. When Nikolai Gumilev volunteered for the front in 1914, Anna Andreevna and her son moved to her husband’s family estate in the Tver province. The collection “White Flock” written there was published in 1917.
Gumilyov and Akhmatova divorced in 1918; Anna Andreevna became the initiator of the breakup. In the same year she marries V.S. Shileiko. The year 1921 was filled with events and drama, Akhmatova broke up with Shileiko in the summer of 1921. Nikolai Gumilyov was arrested on suspicion of participation in a conspiracy, and a few weeks later he was shot. At the same time, two hard-won books by the poetess were published: “The Plantain” and “Anno Domini MCMXXI” (“In the Year of the Lord 1921”).
Since the mid-20s, her new works have ceased to be published, and only occasionally are old works republished. Anna Akhmatova began to live in a civil marriage with Nikolai Punin. In 1933, the first arrest of Punin and her son took place. In total, Lev Gumilev had 4 of them, back in 1935, 1938, 1949. In total, he spent about 10 years in captivity. In 1938 she broke up with Punin. Akhmatova did a lot to free her husband and son - she used her connections and appealed to the country's leadership. The poem “Requiem” describes all the hardships of women forced to beat the thresholds of prisons and camps, and suffer from ignorance of the fate of loved ones. She was accepted into the Union of Soviet Writers in 1939, but in 1946 she was expelled from the Union by a special Resolution.
When did the Great Patriotic War, Akhmatova was in Leningrad, from where she was evacuated to Moscow, then to Tashkent. She returned to the northern capital in 1944. In 1951, she was reinstated in the Writers' Union, and in 1955, she was given a house in Komarovo from the Literary Fund. In the 60s, her work received a second wind: in 1962 she finished “Poem without a Hero,” which took 22 years to complete; in 1964 received the prestigious literary prize in Italy "Etna-Taormina"; became a Nobel Prize nominee, received a doctorate from Oxford in 1965, and published the collection “The Running of Time.”
Due to health problems in 1966, Anna Andreevna moved to a cardiological sanatorium in Domodedovo, death overtook her there on March 5, 1966.
The poetess was buried at the Komarovskoye cemetery near Leningrad. The monument to her was erected by Lev Gumilyov together with his students - an installation of a stone wall, near which the mother and wife waited for news about the family.
Very briefly
Anna Andreevna Akhmatova is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. How much Anna Andreevna went through for her work to be seen and heard. Firstly, non-recognition of the father, secondly, a government ban, thirdly, not an easy personal life.
On a hot summer day in Odessa, or rather on June 11, 1889, an extraordinary girl with a special desire for life was born. A naturally strong personality with kind soul, from childhood she knew that her life would not be easy. During the most difficult period for any teenager (16 years old), her parents separate. Also left no trace love drama. Subsequently, Anna Andreevna wanted to commit suicide.
Anna Akhmatova studied in two gymnasiums, first in Tsarskoe Selo she received her education at the Mariinsky Gymnasium, but graduated from the Kyiv Fundukleevsky Gymnasium.
Only at the 22nd year of the poetess’s life did the world see her works. Her first book, Evening, was published in 1912, but unfortunately it received much criticism. In 1914, the collection “Rosary Beads” was published. But the poem “Requiem” (1935-1940), dedicated to her son Lev Gumilyov, brought the greatest popularity.
At the age of 77, the life of the truly great woman poet Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (Gumileva) was cut short in the Domodedovo sanatorium (Moscow region).
Akhmatova - Biography
The greatest Russian poetess of the 20th century, Anna Akhmatova, born Anna Andreevna Gorenko, was born on June 23, 1889, near Odessa. Her father soon moved the entire family to Tsarskoe Selo near St. Petersburg. Here the girl entered the Mariinsky Gymnasium, where she studied until her parents’ divorce in 1905. Anna continued her studies in Kyiv, and then returned to St. Petersburg to complete literary courses.
Anna wrote her first poem at the age of 11. The poetess chose the pseudonym of her Tatar great-grandmother and began signing herself “Anna Andreevna Akhmatova.”
In 1910 Anna married famous poet Nikolai Gumilyov, whom I met back in Tsarskoye Selo. Two years later their son Lev, the only child of the poetess, was born.
In 1912, Akhmatova’s debut collection of poems, “Evening,” was published, filled with love experiences, which made her a cult figure among the intelligentsia of St. Petersburg. Two years later, the second collection of poetry, “The Rosary,” was published, earning even greater popularity. Akhmatova’s third collection of poems, “The White Flock,” published in 1917, was permeated with the spirit of the First World War and revolutionary times.
Although professional success filled Anna's life, her family union with Gumilyov collapsed. In 1918, Akhmatova and Gumilyov divorced. Subsequently, the poetess had two more marriages - with the poet V. Shileiko and art critic N. Punin, but not one of them could be called happy.
In 1921, two collections “Plantain” and “Anno Domini” were published, which were not to the liking of the Bolshevik authorities. From 1924 to 1940, the printing of Akhmatova’s poems was stopped. She brightened up this period of her life, full of despair and poverty, by studying Pushkin’s biography and translations. In 1938, Akhmatova’s son Lev Gumilev was arrested and sent to a camp. The pain from the grief experienced and the painful atmosphere of repression resulted in the poem “Requiem,” which was published abroad only after 1960.
In 1962, the poetess was nominated for Nobel Prize according to literature. She also received an Italian literary prize and an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
Anna Andreevna died on March 5, 1966 from a heart attack. She was buried in the village of Komarovo near St. Petersburg.
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